GrowthSpotter – October 25, 2018

By Serendipity Labs | October 25, 2018

Serendipity Labs building out coworking space in CNL Tower

Serendipity Labs’ search for its first Orlando coworking location has led it to downtown’s CNL Center Building, where it will lease the third floor with new builds for private and open workspaces, team rooms, and meeting and event areas.

Originally seeking 15,000 square feet, developer 3H Group – which is based in Tennessee and has two hotels in Metro Orlando – chose the 27,000-square-foot space at 450 S. Orange Ave. Opening is scheduled for March or April, a Serendipity spokeswoman told GrowthSpotter on Thursday.

Altamonte Springs-based Jim Macon Building Contractor, Inc., will perform $1.7 million worth of construction work for Class A space through property manager JLL.

“It’s more user-friendly and more modern looking than your typical office,” said Jim Macon Jr., vice president of the construction company that’s a preferred vendor with JLL. Connectivity throughout as well as furnishings, break-room design and inside suites, are designed with coworking in mind, he said. Houston-based Gensler is the architect.

Serendipity upped its square footage in order to provide more common areas and enable flexibility for business tenants, its spokeswoman said.

Office space in Metro Orlando saw low vacancy rates during the third quarter, measured at 9.5 percent in by CBRE, with downtown’s figure slightly tighter at 9.3 percent. Asking lease rates for the region are increasing, the report found, driven by infrastructure construction, solid employment rates, theme parks’ expansions and other factors.

Macon said Lake Mary is a particularly active area for interior office construction right now, having recently built out 57,000 square feet there for customer-service provider Alorica, with a national contract between the two companies.

Serendipity’s first Florida location opened in Aventura. It lists on its website 28 locations nationwide including Orlando’s that’s in the works, and Macon said more are planned.

“We target the established professional, someone who might be in a satellite office or who is independent and can choose when and where they want to work,” Paula Gomprecht, vice president of marketing for Serendipity Labs, told GrowthSpotter in November, adding that differing coworking brands can complement one another by targeting different demographics.

Source, Bill Zimmerman, GrowthSpotter.